Heart stimulator

Abstract

A heart stimulator provides a reliable automatic capture threshold search feature. A stimulation pulse generator is connected to at least a ventricular stimulation electrode for delivering electric stimulation pulses to at least the ventricle of the heart. The stimulation pulses generated have a strength depending on a control signal. A sensing stage is connected to an electrode for picking up electric potentials inside at least said ventricle of a heart and a control unit connected to the sensing stage and to the stimulation pulse generator determines points of time for scheduling stimulation pulses, to trigger the stimulation pulse generator so as to deliver a stimulation pulse when scheduled and to put out control signals for controlling the strength of the stimulation pulse. The control unit is further adapted to perform a capture analysis which may take into account extraordinary events.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The invention refers to a heart stimulator for stimulating at least one chamber of a heart by means of electrical stimulation pulses. The invention particularly refers to implantable pacemakers and implantable cardioverter / defibrillators featuring automatic capture threshold search.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Implantable heart stimulators can be used for treating a variety of heart disorders like bradycardia, tachycardia or fibrillation by way of electric stimulation pulses delivered to the heart tissue, the myocardium. In order to be effective, a stimulation pulse needs to have strong enough of a strength to excite the myocardium of the heart chamber to be paced. Excitation of the myocardium that in turn is followed by a contraction of the respective heart chamber. The stimulation pulse strength high enough to cause excitation of the myocardium is called capture threshold since strong enough a stimulat...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a heart stimulator that has a feature for automatically capturing the heart's natural electrical activity. This feature helps to ensure that the stimulator paces the heart in a safe and effective manner. The stimulator uses a sensing stage to pick up electric potentials in the heart, and a control unit to determine the best time to deliver the stimulation pulses. The control unit is also able to detect and exclude false positive results caused by a premature atrial contraction (PAC) or other atrial events. The invention also includes a shortened AV delay for carrying out an automatic capture control on a beat-to-beat basis. Overall, the invention improves the reliability and accuracy of heart stimulation."

Problems solved by technology

If the myocardium is fully depolarized it is unsusceptible for further excitation and thus refractory.

It should be noted that a fusion beat can result in incorrect conclusions—the event may be classified as a capture or as a non-capture depending upon, and not limited to, the timing of the intrinsic beat and the pace delivery.

From the above it becomes clear that evaluation of the post-pace artifact to conclude whether or not the pace pulse has resulted in a capture may produce unreliable results due to fusion beats.

This unreliability in capture classification (CC) has the potential of producing a few undesirable wrong conclusions.

During automatic capture control (ACC), incorrect non-capture classifications may lead to unnecessary backup pace pulses and / or unnecessary initiations of CTS.

There is, however, a possibility that a premature atrial contraction (PAC) may result in a conducted ventricular depolarization right before or at the same time as the ventricular stimulation pulse having a pulse strength to be tested is delivered—and this fusion beat, as described earlier, may cause an incorrect capture classification.

In case of an incorrect non-capture classification, this can ultimately lead to determination of the capture threshold being higher than what it really is; in some cases, the CTS may take too long time and may timeout resulting in a failed test.

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